Archive

MT's official files as Prime Minister, 1979-90

MT's official files as PM can be read on this site as they are released, in full and free to all - the confidential files originally stored at No.10, the core record of her premiership.

The files have been copied at the British National Archives (TNA) at Kew in London and can be downloaded precisely as they appear in the reading room.

We are doing something more to help people make sense of this mass of information. The files are subject-based, logically enough, but that system makes it difficult to reconstruct the flow of paper across the Prime Minister’s desk at any point in time, depriving us of a sense of context, of the political cross-winds, some of them overwhelming.

To combat this effect we are uploading a large selection of the most important documents from these files – thousands in total - to our powerful site database. You can search and sort by date, subject and other parameters, getting as close as anyone can now get to reconstructing the Prime Minister’s daily "Red Boxes", the rich diet of foreign and domestic policy papers submitted to her by the No.10 Private Office.

List and links to the PM’s files

Below are links to the downloadable files in numerical order. The subject terms are those used in the original filing system.

An average file has around 200 pages.

You can read here an account of how filing worked at No.10, and the system for archiving MT’s Prime Ministerial papers, both of which had their quirks.

Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Private Office files, 1979-1989

1979-89: Chancellor’s Private Office files [links to hundreds of digitised files from the Chancellorships of Sir Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson]

Engagement Diaries

An alternative way through the material is to read MT’s engagement diaries, jumping day to day.

The engagement diaries link directly to relevant documents in the site database, so this is a good way to recover the perspective from the Red Box.

Showing items 301 - 325 of 3727

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/718 Economic policy (Public Spending) (Part 20) Begins: 1982 Jul 15 Ends: 1982 Sep 30 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 255
PREM19/725 Economic policy (G7 Summit - Versailles) (Part 9) Begins: 1982 Jun 6 Ends: 1982 Jul 12 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 230
PREM19/726 Economic policy (Premature disclosure of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) economic forecast data concerning the UK; Prime Minister's protest) Begins: 1980 Dec 22 Ends: 1982 Mar 17 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 30
PREM19/728 Economic policy (Imposition of VAT on gold sovereigns) Begins: 1982 Mar 29 Ends: 1982 Apr 21 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 16
PREM19/729 Education (Report on education in Toxteth) Begins: 1982 May 7 Ends: 1982 May 24 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 26
PREM19/730 Education (Policy on education expenditure; role of HM Inspectorate of Schools; management of higher education; computers in schools) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 May 25 Ends: 1981 Mar 30 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 304
PREM19/731 Education (Policy on education expenditure; computers in schools; management of higher education; university grants) (Part 2) Begins: 1981 Mar 24 Ends: 1982 Jun 7 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 287
PREM19/732 Education (Secondary school education; legislation to remove the compulsion for comprehensive education; the Education Bill; local authority arrangements for school curriculum) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 May 14 Ends: 1981 Oct 14 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 236
PREM19/734 Energy (Energy policy; nuclear power policy; fast reactor policy; Sizewell Inquiry; oil depletion policy; refinery and dispersal strategy; Select Committee report on nuclear power programme) (Part 6) Begins: 1980 Dec 11 Ends: 1982 Jan 20 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 341
PREM19/736 European policy (Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)) (Part 9) Begins: 1981 Nov 20 Ends: 1982 Mar 30 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 133
PREM19/737 European policy (European Community budget) (Part 13) Begins: 1981 Dec 2 Ends: 1982 Feb 3 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 252
PREM19/740 European policy (European Community budget) (Part 16) Begins: 1982 May 17 Ends: 1982 Jun 30 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 195
PREM19/741 European policy (European Community budget) (Part 17) Begins: 1982 Jul 1 Ends: 1982 Jul 22 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Any docs withheld? 2 Classification: Confidential Pages: 156
PREM19/742 European policy (European Community budget) (Part 18) Begins: 1982 Jul 23 Ends: 1982 Nov 3 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 175
PREM19/744 European policy (Visits to UK by Gaston Thorn, President of the European Commission, and Leo Tindemans, President of the Council of Ministers; meetings with Prime Minister) (Part 1) Begins: 1981 Jan 29 Ends: 1982 Sep 14 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 249
PREM19/745 European policy (UK Presidency of the European Community, July-December 1981; publicity) Begins: 1981 Feb 6 Ends: 1982 Jan 4 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 149
PREM19/746 European policy (European Commission Directive under Article 90 of Treaty of Rome concerning transparency of financial relations between member states and public undertakings) Begins: 1980 Sep 10 Ends: 1982 Sep 10 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 15
PREM19/747 European policy (Elections of President of European Parliament; candidacies) Begins: 1979 Jun 11 Ends: 1982 Jan 21 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 12
PREM19/748 European policy (Trading relations between the European Community and Japan) Begins: 1980 Aug 27 Ends: 1982 Dec 15 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 69
PREM19/750 European policy (European Council meeting in Brussels, March 1982: briefing papers) Begins: 1982 Mar 16 Ends: 1982 Mar 26 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 208
PREM19/751 European policy (European Council meeting in Brussels, June 1982) (Part 11) Begins: 1982 Jun 24 Ends: 1982 Jul 1 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 87
PREM19/752 European policy (European Council meeting in Brussels, June 1982: briefing papers) Begins: 1982 Jun 15 Ends: 1982 Jun 25 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 202
PREM19/754 European policy (European Council meeting, Venice, June 1980: briefing papers) Begins: 1980 Jun 3 Ends: 1980 Jun 10 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 754
PREM19/755 European policy (European Council meeting, Luxembourg, December 1980: briefing papers) Begins: 1980 Nov 17 Ends: 1980 Nov 28 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 271
PREM19/757 Foreign policy (Prime Minister's visit to Saudi Arabia & the Gulf States, April 1981) (Part 2) Begins: 1981 Apr 13 Ends: 1982 Nov 19 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Confidential Pages: 247
Per page: